What is Cordovado known for?

Fortified by the bishops in the 11th-12th century as their plain castle and summer residence, seat of civil and ecclesiastical power. Setting for parts of Ippolito Nievo's Confessions of an Italian; Pier Paolo Pasolini later wrote about the borgo and its fields. Public spring-fed fountains run across the territory, a legacy of the karst water table just beneath the plain.

Cordovado is a comune in the province of Pordenone, Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, about 42 kilometers from Udine.

Friuli-Venezia Giulia · Pordenone

Cordovado

A 15-meter Friulian village in the Pordenone plain, fortified by the bishops of Concordia as their summer seat and described in Ippolito Nievo's Confessions.

42 km / 26 mi

Nearest hub (Udine)

2,733

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Borghi più belli d'Italia

Why come

Cordovado liesin the alluvial plain southeast of Pordenone, twenty kilometers from the sea. The name comes from Curtis de Vado, the agricultural court built near a ford on a now-vanished branch of the Tagliamento. The bishops of Concordia, who also held the title of marquises of Cordovado, fortified the court in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and made it their plain castle and summer residence, the seat of civil, military, and ecclesiastical power. The medieval walls and two gate towers still ring the borgo. The castle inside was last fully described in 1856, before being partly demolished. The Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie, built in 1603 on the site of a 1592 Marian apparition, has an octagonal plan and a carved gilded ceiling by Cataldo Ferrara from 1656. Ippolito Nievo set parts of Confessions of an Italian here in the 1850s; Pier Paolo Pasolini later wrote about the village. Twenty-three public fountains run on spring water across the territory.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello di Cordovado
Medieval castle of the bishops of Concordia inside the walled borgo, with two surviving gate towers and a residential courtyard.
Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie
Baroque sanctuary built in 1603 with an octagonal plan and a carved gilded ceiling by Cataldo Ferrara from 1656-1658.
Borgo medievale
Walled medieval nucleus with two gate towers, civic houses, and the bishops' residential complex inside the original perimeter.
Duomo di Sant'Andrea Apostolo
Ancient parish church dating back to the fifteenth century, with later additions and Baroque interventions.
Parco letterario Ippolito Nievo
Literary park tracing the locations Nievo used in Confessions of an Italian, written partly during his stays in Cordovado.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the workable months. The plain warms early; April and May bring green fields and the irrigation springs at their clearest. July and August are humid and still, with summer thunderstorms breaking over the Pordenone lowlands and mosquitoes thick along the ditches. September brings grape harvest in the surrounding vineyards and quieter afternoons in the borgo. November through March is fog season in the plain, the kind that sits for days; many of the smaller venues close. The Madonna delle Grazie patronal feast in early September is the village calendar high point.